In 2018, with ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt launched a sustained attack on what they called the culture of ‘safetyism’ in American parenting and on university campuses. Their target was the belief that children and young adults are fragile beings who must be protected from uncomfortable ideas and the […]
In this edition of Nimby Watch, we’re going everywhere and nowhere – we’re on the information superhighway, in cyberspace! Hang on, I was about to ask you where we were going this week, but I’ve read the intro and it sounds like we’re on a 1990s episode of Tomorrow’s World. In a way we are! […]
Keir Starmer’s proposed digital ID scheme is misguided – yet even its fiercest critics should not be opposed to digital ID in principle. When done right, digital ID can make government more efficient, services faster and citizens’ lives easier. The problem lies not in digital ID, but in the British state’s attempt to control it. […]
The last Conservative government turned Britain into a startup nation. Over 14 years, the UK became home to more billion-dollar tech startups (‘unicorns’) than France and Germany combined; we fostered the world’s third largest AI ecosystem; and in our last year of government, business investment into R&D increased by 30%, to £49 billion. When it […]
When you think of the jobs most likely to be automated away, which do you think of? Those most at threat are those that are repetitive and rule-based, require minimal social or emotional intelligence – and don’t rely heavily on creativity or complex judgement. Customer service work is often being quoted as at threat, as […]
Marx was wrong, Burnham was right: capitalism wasn’t replaced by communism, but by managerialism. In ‘The Managerial Revolution’ (1941), James Burnham wrote that the bourgeoisie weren’t sinking into the proletariat – they were being replaced by ‘administrators, technicians, managers’. If, like me, you love Edmund Burke, this might remind you of his mournful line: ‘The […]
Last week, NHS GPs began prescribing Mounjaro for weight loss for the first time. But for many people reaching out to their doctor, the response is likely to be disappointing – the NHS has made it clear that the drug will only be available to those who meet a strict set of criteria. The public […]
Little unites Rachel Reeves, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Tony Blair Institute. But a shared desire for more robots in Britain somehow has. In 2019, Reeves stated: ‘The real danger for the UK economy and for future jobs growth is not that we have too many robots in the workplace but that we have […]
The £1 trillion British tech sector is displaying its wares at London Tech Week. As President of The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), I’m thrilled we’re gathering in the same week for our flagship Festival of Work. With my rare background having headed both the labour market and technology departments of a G7 […]
People say nothing works in Britain. That we cannot build anything any more. We hear about a decade of form filling before a spade is in the ground. Then, when we finally get going, only our grandchildren have a hope of seeing it actually built. But that’s not true everywhere. On March 14, digging started […]
Think, for a moment, on Britain’s state capacity: that is, the ability of the government to get shit done. I doubt you would give it full marks. But there are two ways, really, to look at this situation. Recall the dress that was thought, simultaneously, to be blue-black and white-gold. In the same way, we […]
It’s easy to blame the failure of Britain’s economic growth on the usual suspects – bad politicians, global crises, geopolitical shifts– but the world hasn’t stopped moving. It’s us. The machinery of British progress has ground to a halt. For decades, both the political Right and Left have failed to meet the moment. The Right, […]
Labour’s recent decisions to dilute plans to restrict social media access for under-16s and to put smartphone bans in schools on a statutory footing are misguided. It also comes on top of Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson’s plan for schools to ‘narrow the digital divide’ and enter a ‘new technological era’ by boosting the uptake of education […]
What do high-flying LinkedIn profiles and literal air travel have in common? They both want to show a smooth, seamless ascent, with no turbulence and definitely no bumpy landings. It’s true that on LinkedIn, you can often view someone’s career journey taking off and the twists and turns they take. A promotion here, a glossing […]
After years of rural areas suffering from sluggish internet, Project Kuiper – Amazon’s plan to boost global broadband access using thousands of satellites in low-earth orbit, now approved by Ofcom for use in the UK – offers a high-speed solution that skips the usual hassle. Wave goodbye to digging up roads or waiting for fibre-optic […]
The UK has a tech scale-up problem. Too often we fail to support our most innovative and successful startups to grow into global competitors within the UK. Instead, we’re seeing a trend of ‘UK begins, elsewhere cashes in’. Our brightest companies pursue greater growth potential in other markets or seek acquisition by foreign companies. Two […]
